Rules of Combat
by Blake Stone
Summary: GDI and Nod face it off over the Sahara Desert. Scenes of Combat and Gore. Story of a Soldier under Nod and the forces that are against him
1. The Introduction

Captain John Bakerman pulled back on the flight yolk of the Rockwell B1-B Lancer and felt the plane pull up smoothly.The two F-16s beside him momentarily went out of his sight before they caught up to him in the climb.He looked down at the flight controls to make sure that everything was ready to go."Look alive, we're on final to the target, commence dive in twenty seconds."

He sat back in his seat and relaxed for a few moments.The computer automatically took them into the dive.He felt his sensitive stomach begin to flip as the negative Gs took effect.

Down below, the vast fields of tiberium became visible, along with enemy ordinance and the base itself.At fifteen thousand feet, the bomb doors opened and racks of Mk82 and Mk84 bombs dropped out.

The bombs made contact with the Nod base.He saw their main target, a chemical weapons factory, take a direct hit and lift into the air.Clouds of smoke and rolling balls of fire obscured his sight of the field momentarily.He saw the F-16s drop even lower then he was and drop several Mk82 bombs on the runway, taking out a pair of C-130s and a Russian AN-124 Condor that was parked on the tarmac.

Then they shot past the base and continued on.With this one strike, they had cut Nods ability to operate in Sudan in half.He made a lazy turn and began to set the autopilot for the long flight back to their airfield in Saudi Arabia.His radar screamed as it picked up two enemy contacts.

Lieutenant Tahoua Agadez shot across the desert in his MIG 23.Bearing down on him was a second MIG 23 from behind.They were on a training exercise outside the base perimeter when the base had put out an SOS.He saw the bombs make contact with the ground, making giant craters and lifting tons of sand and vegetation up into the air with every hit."We have bandits in our area, prepare for supersonic flight.""Rodger," communicated his fellow pilot from behind him.

He hit a switch that swept the MIG's wings back and blasted through the sound barrier.In moments he was moving at the MIG's highest rated speed, he even threw the afterburners in."You take the F-16s, I will take the B-1.""Understood"

He activated his AAM targeting system.His HUD showed a solid lock, but then lost it.He acquired it again, but lost it.The electronic jamming from the B-1 was preventing his missiles from picking up a solid lock.He switched over to his twenty-three millimeter cannons.He held down on the trigger on the flight stick and raked the Lancer with his cannons.The bomber went into a complicated series of turns and flips.He let it go.The F-16 still flew on straight and level as if it hadn't even realized that there was a battle on.

Agadez got a positive lock on it and fired a missile.The pilot finally reacted to the situation and made a hard dive, dropping chaff as he went.The missile was at first distracted by the chaff, but then bore down on the F-16 as intended.The rear portions of the F-16s engines exploded in a fiery flash.There was a loud explosion and the pilot was thrown from his cockpit by his ejection seat.He watched the parachute float down to the ground.

He swung around and began to bear down on the Lancer, which was now some distance off.He sparked his afterburners again.Fuel veins in his engine sprayed raw fuel into the fire, he shot forward on a jet of blue flame.He ran on it for several seconds, and then shut it down.The afterburner used his fuel at three hundred percent more than normal.He centered his gunsight on the B-1 and fired.His cannon rounds slammed into the B-1s fuselage.He cut off as a low fuel alarm sounded on his boards.He immediately pulled off target and pointed the nose towards the base.

As the base moved towards him he cut down his engine power and dropped the underside fuel tanks.As the tanks dropped away he could feel a noticeable improved in the jets responsiveness.

The engines began to sputter at they ran out of fuel to burn.He was almost to the base runway.He still cut through the air a quick speed so he dropped the gear and lined up for an approach.The lines on the runway guided him in and he came in low to make contact, but he was moving too fast.He threw his flaps on full and then dropped to the runway.He hit hard and was thrown against his harness.He felt the plane skittering to the side so he threw on all the brakes he could manage and felt the plane slide to a stop. 

Master Sergeant Taggert could not believe the destruction that he was witnessing on the ground.The Mk82s and 84s make tremors that felt like earthquakes as they made contact with the ground.Towering walls of fire consumed everything in its path.Men ran around screaming, on fire.Tanks and planes went up in smoke as bombs made contact with the runway and storage depots.He was on the outskirts of the base so it was unlikely a bomb would drop on him, he counted his blessings.

An even louder explosion shattered the air next to him, but he could see nothing.The planes that were dropping the bombs were to high and to fast to be seen.The war factory went up in rolling fire and black smoke.He saw one of the MIG 23s make a shaky landing on the runway, and then rocket sounds as three SAM missiles shot up into the air.

He looked over beside him as a SAM site took a direct hit.The rolling fireball forced him to the ground and he felt shrapnel cut into his back.Then, the world faded into blackness…

Seth stormed around the room.He was so filled with rage, he felt like slamming his fist into the expensive conference table that two figures sat at, but he restrained himself, barley…

The two people that sat at the table looked very nervous.The woman was Nod's main radar operator; the man was the controller of the single SAM site that had never fired one shot during the engagement. 

"Can you explain to me why we just installed a new radar system that failed to detect this oncoming attack, and why the other SAMs detected the bombers, but not yours?" He demanded with a shaking fist.

"Sir," the woman cried out."The radar system is an old soviet variant and may be faulty, the same with the SAMs, or the aircraft may even have been stealth."

This time he did slam his hand down on the table, making everyone in the room jump, including the guards at the door.Then ignoring the pain in his hand, he spoke."Two pieces of equipment failing at the same time, that is highly unlikely."

She started to speak, he cut her off."I find your excuses displeasing.The Nod operation has no room for incompetent malcontents."He drew his 9mm sidearm."I will give you the option of doing it yourself, however." 

He extracted all but one round from the clip and then slid it across the table to her.She looked at the gun for several seconds, then picked it up and examined its cool, nickel-plated surface, then looked him right in the eye and asked, "And if I were to use this weapon on you…?"

Seth smiled."If you were to use this weapon on me, with only one round the guards would capture you.You would then be crucified and disemboweled.You would die slowly, while the buzzards picked at your innards, a most unpleasant way to die, I assure you."

"I see,…" she said.Then in one fluid motion, she jammed the pistol into the man beside her.She pulled the trigger.The man looked at her with an openmouthed expression, moments before a rivulet of blood slid down over his lips and onto his shirt before he slumped back into his chair.

Seth laughed and clapped his hands."Excellent, only a person as highly trained to Nod expectations would consider eliminating a companion to save her own life.I congratulate you lieutenant."

She forced a smile and threw the gun onto the table, then sat back in her chair."You may go now, lieutenant."

She stood up and walked out of the room.A guard turned to follow her out.Seth picked up his gun and replaced it in his holster.

The door opened and Kane walked into the room."Do you think you should have let her live?"

Seth looked at the high commander of Nod."We can't afford to lose highly-trained people like her.The radar system _was _faulty, if her self-preservation instincts are that strong, she could be a valuable member of the Nod High Council."

"It's your call," said Kane."On another topic, the troops in town 172 are encountering too much resistance to make it worth our while.You can withdraw them, but leave a few snipers to terrorize the local populace."Seth saluted and left the room.


	2. The Thickening

Disclaimer: The game Command and Conquer is the property of Westwood studios and Nintendo 64.No profit is being made by this piece.The Original characters such as Duke Taggert, Eric Johnson and John Bakerman are mine so if you want to use them, please ask

Authors note:You may have noticed that the extent of the Command and Conquer technology you see in this story is a Mammoth tank.I have done this because I believe that the technology in most Command and Conquer games is stupid and too specialized to really do any good.

Now, onto the story…

Shots rang out in town 172.Nod troopers tried to make an organized retreat, but they were taking serious losses.Eric Johnson regarded the GDI troopers through the scope of his M21 rifle.The troopers did not wear rank to confuse snipers, but it was obvious who was actually in command.

The man with the M1911 was obviously an officer; he was also shouting orders to everyone in sight.He tried to run across some of the rubble, but only tripped and ended up falling to his knees.Eric centered the crosshairs on his chest and fired.The softnose round made contact with his chest and punched it out in a haze of red.

By this time he could hear the Nod CH-47 Chinook helicopters coming in to evac the Nod units in the field.An APC moved down the square, raking the Nod units.Its fifty-cal devastated the running Nod troops.

Eric aimed for the exposed gunner standing out of the roof hatch on top of the APC.He fired one 7.62 round, the softnose cut through his helmet.The man slumped and fell into the interior of the APC.The vehicle commander and the crew inside frantically shoved the man's body back up the hatch, giving Eric ample time to fire indiscriminately into the hatch and terrorize the crew inside.

The tracked APC made a slow turn and rolled back down the street to get under cover.Eric reached into his ghillie suit and came up with a fresh magazine.He slapped it into the M21 and chambered the first round.He looked back through the scope at the village.In his scope he saw a young boy dart out from around a hut and run down a rocky outcropping.His mother came around the hut and tried to chase her son out onto the rocks, but a young GDI trooper held her back.He shot the trooper through the head just as the mother drew a revolver out to try to protect herself.

Two troopers came around the corner and saw the dead GDI soldier and the mother with the revolver.They raised their M4 carbines and cut down the woman before she could explain herself.Some of the fire was sidetracked and ended up hitting the child as well.One trooper moved down to the woman's body and kicked the revolver away from her.He then looked at where the dead GDI soldier's body was and then realized that the woman could not have hit him that way from where she was standing when they found her.He looked almost directly at Eric, just as he pulled the trigger.The man took the round in the gut and went down.His partner dived behind an outcropping of rocks.

The man that had been gut shot was not dead, he lay on the ground, pleading for his friend to come and save him.His friend was obviously torn between saving his own life and going out to get his friend.Eric kept an eye on his through the sniper scope of his rifle.He saw the man's arm come around the rock, as if throwing something.A cylindrical object rolled down the rubble and began to spout thick clouds of green smoke.

Once the smoke was thick enough to block his line of sight, the trooper would dash out, save his friend and get back under cover.Eric reached up on top of the scope and hit a switch.Instantly the world through the scope was bathed in black, blues, reds, greens, etc. showing body heat.Most of the buildings were warm from being in the sun all day, but he could clearly see the trooper lying on the ground.The woman and boy's cooling bodies, and the hot smoke canister, in which a chemical reaction was taking place to make the green smoke.He watched as the unknowing trooper came out from under cover to save his friend.Eric's M21 spoke and carved a hole in the trooper's chest.

Eric slid forward on his stomach to get a better position.Once he was far enough away he stood up and walked to stretch his sore muscles.He walked to his position and then propped up his rifle and looked through the scope.

The GDI troops were clearing the houses on either side of the square.One trooper would bash the door open with a sledgehammer and then the others would move in and clear the place of any hostiles.

As he watched, a man that was obviously a commander strolled out, talking to the troops, and throwing commands around.Eric fired one round, taking the man in the chest.He then set the rifle down, ready for a lunch break.

Master Sergeant Duke Taggert peered out around the corner of the wall of the building to make sure the passage was clear of any GDI troops.When he was sure that the street was clear, he waved the Nod Buggy forward.The vehicle drove into the deserted town square, leaving tire tracks in the sand as it went.

The sun burned down of them, the Sahara desert was a wasteland with only a few villages, until 2002, when the tiberium began to appear.The tiberium had adapted to two climates, desert and woodland-grassland.At first the small towns were the only ones who claimed it, then the towns grew and got larger and richer.The Brotherhood of Nod and the Global Defense Initiative arrived at the same time.The conflicts that arose threatened to start the third world war, so the UN quickly turned the Global Defense Initiative into a military movement.It was originally all Special Forces, code named Black Ops Nine, but now included most of the regular military and reserves.

Nod had forced the villages into allegiance with them; while GDI stated that anyone found claiming loyalty to Nod would be put to death and vice versa for Nod.GDI went as far as to implement a policy put anyone processing Tiberium to death, saying that they had the right to all of the tiberium in the world.

He shook his head.That was why they were here, to destroy a GDI friendly base, but first they had to Scout it out to ensure that no more processed tiberium remained into it.

He gripped his AK-47 tightly and scanned the tops of the buildings for snipers.There was movement at one of the buildings as the village leader stepped out.Taggert's corporal stepped out to talk to the man, being the only one that spoke the rag-head language of this country.

He corporal and the man were in the middle of a heated argument.Finally his corporal shook his head, pulled the M1911 that was at his side and shot the man in his head.

Before the man's body hit the ground, sniper fire lanced out from the windows of several buildings.Taggert dived behind the Nod Buggy for cover, then returned fire with his AK-47.The M60 gunner began laying down fire from on top of the buggy.

Broken glass and splinters of wood fell from the sides of the buildings as the 7.62 by 59 rounds buried themselves into the buildings windows and the building within.The corporal fell to the ground holding open a hole the size of a baseball in his gut.A sniper had shot him.Taggert bounded over the side of the buggy and rushed out, firing as he went.He grabbed the man's combat webbing and hauled him around the side of a building.

He reached into the man's front pocket and took out the morphine injection within.He jammed in into the man's arm and saw relief in his eyes as the painkiller took effect.The man still looked around frantically as if he didn't understand what had happened and he was now beginning to cough up blood.

Taggert had done everything he could.They didn't have a squad medic; he had been killed long ago.Injecting morphine was the extent of Taggert's first aid capabilities.

Taggert dropped his clip and slipped in another as he prepared to run and take the offensive towards the buildings.He darted out zigzagging to avoid the fire from the windows.He dropped near one of the doors of the buildings and enjoyed a quick moment where he wasn't being shot at.Then the door that he was standing next to opened and the barrel of a gun poked out.Taggert took out a frag grenade and pulled the pin.The spoon flipped off and he counted to three then tossed the explosive into the door.The grenade went off with a deafening BOOM!The door blew off its hinges and hit someone that was hiding behind it.

Smoke poured out of the building and horrified screams came from inside the building.He took out another grenade and tossed it in.The second explosion silenced the screaming villagers.

He moved to the side of the door, making sure that his AK was ready to go then moved into the building.Inside, there was a half dozen mutilated bodies of villagers and shrapnel marked walls.A small fire was burning in the corner.

Taggert cleared the building, and then walked back outside.The fallen corporal was getting limited medical attention from a private that seemed to know what he was doing.

They lifted the corporal into the Nod Buggy, and then he waved the rest of his squad onto him."We have to search this place for tiberium, so we may be here for a while if we find any tunnel networks.Find water, find food, and try to find some gasoline for the Nod Buggy.If a civilian tries to stop you, kill them.

They branched out over the village.They found a communal well and in one building they found about ten plastic gas cans full of water, stored for a drought, they figured.

Taggert marched up to one building and kicked the rickety door down and stormed in, backed up by two privates.Inside a woman went into hysterics, pleading him not to hurt her family. He ignored her and fount the door to the cellar.He checked inside of it and found that it held enough food for a few days.He closed the door and walked back up the stairs.

He stepped back into the main room and discovered a man there that he had never seen before.The man was yelling at him in his foreign language and holding up a revolver.When he saw Taggert he snapped up the revolver, but Taggert let loose a burst from his AK and sliced the man down the middle.The wife screamed and ran towards the body.Taggert emptied about fifteen rounds into the woman, spraying her internal organs and blood over every surface of the home.The woman spat out a lungful of blood and dropped down onto her husband's body.

Taggert walked outside, reloading his AK as he went.The Nod Buggy came roaring towards him.It came to a hard stop and a Private First Class got out from behind the wheel."The civilians had a GDI issue radio.They got off a message before we could stop them."

"Damn," cursed Taggert."Unexpected, but we will have to deal with it.They'll send a helicopter for recon and a tank or two.We can't lose this position or Nod will lose its foothold on this territory.What can we use against tanks?"

The PFC looked in the back of the Buggy."We have two RPGs, three LAWs left and an old bazooka with five new Depleted Uranium rounds.Plus an M79 along with a few antipersonnel mines.

Taggert nodded."That should be enough to repel anything that they can commit at first.

They moved out, setting up the traps.They stripped the M60 off the Nod Buggy and set it up in a building that could cover almost all the fields of fire.They put antipersonnel mines on all the more heavily used roads that led into the building and then a few in the square as well.

When they were finished the town was perfectly normal.They had covered all their booby traps with sand, and now they sat in the buildings, camouflaged and waiting.

It came first as a hum, then in the distance they could see as a single Bell UH-1N helicopter came in low over the desert.It came in over the buildings and hovered, creating small tornadoes of sand.

It moved overtop of the building that Taggert was on and paused.Taggert flipped open the LAW and aimed it at the base of the chopper.He pressed down on the firing button.The LAW shot out of the tube and hit the bottom of the chopper almost dead on.The pilot of the chopper tried to pull up to avoid hitting the buildings, but it was too late.The helicopters nose touched the roof of the building and went through.It exploded throwing shrapnel around Taggert.The rotor blades snapped off and were sent flying, deadly if they hit anyone.

The helicopter sunk into the building and exploded again as flames reached its fuel and ordinance tanks.Taggert was hurled off the top of the building and onto the ground below.Luckily his flak jacket took most of the impact and the fall was not that far.

Taggert got up in time to see the pilot of the helicopter stumble out of the door, on fire and screaming.Taggert pumped five rounds into him to put him down.He then darted towards another building as he saw a medium tanks approach him from over the sand dunes surrounding the town.Then, it fired.The 100mm HE shells cut into the ground in front of him, putting up huge gouts of flame and sand.

The standard GDI medium tank or the 'Leopard' as it was known before the war, was the perfect combination of firepower and mobility.The UN had taken about a thousand aging Leopards and fixed them, adding more armor and better armaments, then handing them over to GDI.

Behind the tank came an APC probably filled with troops.The tank rolled into the square just as Taggert reached the roof of the building that he was running for.A loudspeaker mounted on the front of the Medium tank exploded with sound."Nod troops.Surrender yourselves to us and you will be treated with kindness and charity.However this option is only open to you once.Deny us and we will fight to the death."

Taggert leaned over the side of the building as troops began to disgorge from the APC.He set his AK-47 down and picked up the RPG that was on the roof.He brought it to his shoulder and fired it at the tank.The armor-piercing grenade shot out and broke through the tank's armor.The turret exploded sending shrapnel into the troops exiting the APC.Many were knocked down and rolled around on the ground, screaming in pain.

The M60 on one of the other building opened fire on the troops.The medium machine gun cut into the near-defenseless soldiers.One man stepped on a mine as he ran for cover.With a puff of compressed air, the green canister popped up and exploded, stitching several troops with red-hot shrapnel.Several men screamed that had been hit by shrapnel that did not kill them.

Taggert stood over the top of the building and raked several troops that were running for cover with his AK-47.A glance at the condition of the ground troops told him that the M60 was doing its job.

It was a slaughter.The GDI troops had almost no cover except for the APC and the still burning hulk of the tank that he had hit with the RPG.

The soldiers began to retreat, but then they panicked and ran.They were quickly cut down.The APC took off a full speed, though.

Taggert threw the rope that he had taken with him down the face of the building and then slid down it.They had to take that APC; it could further their goals or at least provide some gasoline for the travel ahead of them.As he slid to the bottom of the rope, the APC hit an anti-personnel mine.The mine exploded directly under the track and it blew the tread off of one side.

The one operating track drove the inoperable on into the ground and jammed the APC so it could not move.The Nod troopers approached it carefully and slowly.One Private climbed on top of the vehicle and opened the gunner's hatch on top.He dropped one of their grenades into the crew pit and then threw himself off.There was a violent, muffled explosion and then thick black smoke started pouring out of the hatch.The smell of chordite and burning human flesh was thick in the smoke.The crew pit was separated from the drivers control pit, so it might still be drivable if they could repair the track.

He popped the side door.In the front seat, a GDI trooper cowered, holding up a Beretta to defend himself with.Taggert reached in and hauled the man out."Don't worry, were not going to hurt you."He said.

That made the man relax a little as they disarmed him of his weapons and combat webbing.They then pushed the man out past the town square."Walk out two thousand paces, then you can go where you want."He said, tying a blindfold around the man's eyes.

He waited until the man was about twenty paces away, and then fired three quick rounds from his AK-47, hitting the man squarely in the back.He tumbled to the sand and did not move.

Taggert turned back to the APC where one of his men was looking at the APC's treads."Can you fix it?"He asked.

"I think so, if we can salvage a length of track from the Medium tank.There's a repair kit in the APC so I should be okay."

"Good," he said."We'll have to get out of here quick, when they realize that they don't have radio contact with their men, they'll send something else."


	3. 

the initative strikes back

His PFC tapped his shoulder."Sergeant, they already have."

Out on the ocean of sand a lumbering behemoth of a tank approached the town.The main turret on top held two cannons in place, while the body was supported by four separate tracks.The turret also held two missile racks and two machine guns.The mammoth tank was the master of the battlefield.Bazookas and grenades would do nothing against these monsters, they needed something heavier.They immediately broke into action.

"Get me the bazooka shells, a grenade, a landmine and some duct tape.Everyone, fall back to the buggy."They moved off just as the machine guns opened up.Bullets nicked at their heels as they ran to the buggy.

Taggert grabbed the equipment that he had asked for out of the hands of his PFC. Quickly, he used the duct tape to tape together three bazooka rounds, and secure them to a landmine.He then jammed a grenade into the center of the shells.By this time the tank was already in the square and the infantry behind it were fanning out, looking for targets.

"Cover Me!"Shouted Taggert as he ran out from concealment.They GDI troops immediately tracked him with their fire, but a hail of lead coming from his troops made them keep their heads down.

He yanked the pin on his bomb and hurled it at the tank.It landed in front of the tread and the tank rolled over it.The land mine and the grenade went off simultaneously.The nearest soldiers screamed in pain as they were caught in the blast as well.

Taggert dived for cover, firing his AK at the nearest targets.He dived behind a small, crumbling wall, grateful for any protection it could give.He heard the M60 open up.He reached onto his web belt and unhooked two grenades from his web belt.He yanked the pins and tossed them over the wall, then winced at the explosions went off close to him.Several screams cut through the sounds of battle before they were cut off with his AK-47.

He stayed down and only periodically exposed himself to fire a few rounds.The GDI troops were beat and they new it.He stood up and examined his handiwork on the Mammoth Tank.The tank's treads had rolled over the explosives, setting off the landmine just as the grenade exploded.

The tread may have been knocked off, making the tank immobile, but it was still in the fight.Taggert darted out and jumped onto the top of the vehicle.He clamored his way to the crew hatch and pulled it open, dropping in a grenade.He heard several panicked screams as he jumped off, then the explosive went off, sending a geyser of smoke out of the hatch.

The squad regrouped near a building.They had lost or used most of their ammo in the fight.Taggert had one clip left for his AK, and the assault rifles that the GDI troops had been using had been all but destroyed from the flying shrapnel during the fight.They did manage to salvage three Beretta pistols from the bodies along with a single working M16 and three clips of salvaged ammo.

Taggert rounded his troops up after they had salvaged anything that they could use as a weapon. The situation was grim, they had very little ammo or weapons, a grenade blast had taken out the Nod Buggy, and GDI reinforcements would be swarming all over the town in an hour or less.They had to escape, but walking through the desert was a sure way to die.They needed a vehicle of some sort, or a deep hole to crawl into until they could be rescued.

He reached down on his webbing and took a canteen from it and took a long draught."Search the buildings." He told his men.They spanned out across the square.

Taggert kept his AK, even though he was down to one clip.He walked up to one of the settlements, gripped the doorknob and turned.It was locked of course, the rickety door hardly warranted the waste of ammo, and so he took to kicking the thing down.The door came down and he walked in like he owned the place.

The two people inside looked up from what they were doing.Taggert opened up on them with his AK-47, they hadn't even attempted to help them in the battle, under Nod's rules of engagement, they had already forfeited their lives.

He tossed the empty AK aside and reached for the M9 Berettas holstered on his hips.He moved through the home with an M9 in each hand.The rest of the house was empty, but he went on a hunch and searched it through again.Then he caught sight of the freshly moved dirt around the floor in the main room.

He kicked the dirt away from the wall, revealing some wooden slats that were across something that looked like a root cellar or something like that.He set one of the pistols down and lifted the makeshift door out of the way.

He felt a surge of moisture and dankness wash over his face.He looked down at the stairs cut out of the natural hewn earth.He picked up the other M9 and edged down into the hole.He didn't want to use his flashlight for fear of giving away his position.As he reached the bottom, he came into a large underground chamber.A figure dressed in desert combats jumped up and made a break for the far corner of the chamber.Taggert tracked the man with the pistols, catching the running figure in a hail of gunfire.The Kevlar vest the man was wearing took most of the impact, but he stumbled and went down behind a large tarped object.

Taggert moved around so that he could cover the downed soldier.The man was on his stomach and still moving slightly, his Kevlar vest having taken most of the rounds.He was reaching for his gun, an MP5K.Taggert stepped forward and held the muzzle of the pistol to the man's head and pulled the trigger.

Taggert stood up as several of his men rushed in.Taggert holstered his pistols and picked up the man's MP5K, stripping the clips off the man's body.He then took a quick survey of the underground room.

Tools adorned the walls, most with a fair amount of rust on them. The dank smell was thick in the air and a feeble amount of light filtered down from the spaces in the wooden slats above them.The back of the room was dug into a type of a ramp, leading to the surface as an emergency exit or something.It didn't look like it was made for individual soldiers, more like a vehicle of some sort.

Taggert gripped the edge of the tarp and threw it off whatever was beneath it.The billowing tarp revealed a GDI humvee, just sitting there.They all stepped back, studying their prize.

The hummer was a low vehicle, very stable.It ran off diesel and there was practically nothing short of a tank that would stop it.The hard plastic shell that served as a cab protected them from the elements, while a hatch allowed any member of the hummer's crew to man the fifty caliber machine gun mounted on top.

They checked the back and found that they had an amount of extra gas as well as some fifty-caliber ammunition.Corporal Henderson looked into the vehicle and said, "tank registers full, and there's an M-16 in the back."

"Good" stated Taggert."Corporal Henderson, get our salvaged weapons and bring them down.Johnson, get as much water as you can carry.Thompson, help him on that.The rest of you, bring food and whatever weapons that you can find."

As his soldiers left, Taggert climbed into the hummer and up into the gunner's station.He fed the fifty-caliber rounds into the gun.They wouldn't do much against tanks, but they would be something.

His troops got back, carrying the water and supplies that he wanted.They threw them into the box and secured the there with some light chains that were included in the hummer's tool kit.

Taggert got one of his corporals to drive the hummer.The engine roared to life and the vehicle lurched forward, up through the wooden slats that served as an entrance and out into the desert.

Taggert opened up the gunner's hatch and took his command position at the fifty-caliber gun.

As the wind rushed passed him he spotted a rising column of dust about five miles off.He raised a pair of binoculars to his eyes and peered at it.There were a few hummers and two APC's that he could see, all in GDI colors.Apparently GDI wanted him even more than he thought.He leaned down into the cab and told his Corporal to put on some speed.

Colonel Eric Thorsen Velcroed his Kevlar vest onto his chest and threw on a helmet to match.He stepped out of his seat in the command hummer to take a look at the town that they had just seized.The townsfolk had been detained by his crack troopers and were being held at gunpoint.They all had been bound and were all laying or sitting on the ground, some being searched.

Thorsen made sure that the Thompson submachine gun in his hands was loaded and then began to walk towards the buildings.

Being somewhat of a World War Two buff, he enjoyed carrying his old Thompson and his father's M1911, which had been used in the Pacific in world war two, when his father was a young second lieutenant.His father had gave it to him when he had entered training in the marines and he had taken it with him ever since, to the Gulf as a Sergeant and now to the war in Africa.

The Thompson had been bought from a workshop in Seattle before it was destroyed.The obvious choice to pair with his M1911.

He stepped up to one of the doorsteps when a private stopped him."Sir, you shouldn't be here, we haven't cleared the area totally."

Thorsen nodded and walked in anyway.He held his Thompson ready as he moved through the house and down into a root cellar.Inside was a large empty area.Tire marks led up to a hole through the wooden hatchway leading outside.In the far corner of the structure was a bundle.Thorsen opened it up, revealing one of his soldier's body's.He rolled the body over and studied the pattern of bullet holes in the back of his Kevlar vest.

He stood up and backed away from the corpse, rigor mortis had just barley set in.This man had been dead for no more than two hours.

He ran back up the steps and out of the house he walked fast towards the humvee that was his vehicle.He opened the glove box and pulled out several maps.

"God Damn It!!" he said, studying the maps.

He reached into his pocket and took out a cigar from one of the protective tubes that held it securely.He bit off the end and spat it out onto the ground.He pulled out his US Army lighter and lit it up, puffing on the end.

He jumped out of the humvee and waved his 2IC, Captain Jeffery Stark, over.The man jogged over to him."They got one of our hummers, Jeff.Its one of the spares that that damned Morewell stored here fro a push into Nod territory."

Jeff took the map out of his hand and looked at it."Looks like they'll try to head north to this town here." He said, punching his finger on the map at the decided point.

Thorsen looked at the point where Stark's finger was."'Course they will, it's the only thing on this map.Call HQ and have them fly recon over their suspected path of travel.Stop them if you can, but don't kill them, I want that bastard Taggert alive!"

"Sir, what do you want done with all these people." Asked Stark, motioning towards the fifteen or so people that the GDI forces had taken prisoner.

"Kill the people and burn the settlement.They were collaborators."Said Thorsen plainly.

"Sir, I thought these people resisted them." Said Stark nervously.

Thorsen looked directly at Stark.Stark stared back at his own reflection in Torsen's sunglasses."Had they done it properly, either Taggert would have been stopped or the villagers would be dead by his hand.Follow your orders, Captain."

"Yes sir."

Thorsen sat back and watched as the civilians were burned down with automatic fire, blood spilled onto the desert sand.A private sloshed a small amount of gasoline on each of the buildings, and then threw a match on it, setting the whole village aflame.Thorsen ignored the waves of heat as his hummer roared off.


	4. Above and Beyond

"Yes, I know we're still in GDI territory, but unless you send us some diesel and ammo, were going to be here for a very long time."Taggert yelled into the radio receiver attached to the radio on the radioman's back. 

"We'll try, no guarantees."The emotionless voice crackled back across the radio.

"Rodger, out."Taggert dropped the mouthpiece from his ear and handed back to the radioman.He got back to the hummer and sat down, taking a drink to sooth his parched throat.

Three hours later they were still there.He played idly with three nine-millimeter rounds from the clip of his MP5K

Then, in the distance, he began to hear a buzzing sound.About fifteen minutes later he watched as a black C-130 Hercules skimmed low over the desert.Taggert watched as the rear door opened and a pallet dropped out the back.The chutes packed around them deployed and the pallet floated to the ground.The Hercules pulled into a tight curve and waggled its wings in salute as it passed over them.

Taggert picked up his MP5 and ran full out into the desert.The pallet had landed hard and split open on impact, spilling the contents.Taggert picked up one can of diesel from between the shards and turned and ran back towards the hummer.A private behind him did the same.They made it back to the hummer.He unscrewed the cap and emptied the fuel into the tank.Then he took the can from his private and did the same to the second.His squad had all gathered around the pallets so Taggert and his PFC jumped in the vehicle and fired the engine with a roar.

They raced across the sand to the pallet.He shut off the engine and got out.His squad had opened the crates a little neater and were laying out the equipment in them.They had two AK-47s and an M-16; there were also five handguns and plenty of ammo for all.There were new BDUs, boots, and (sigh!) toilet paper.There were also fresh, new socks and other personal equipment.

They gave each person as much privacy as possible while they changed into their new equipment, then they buried all their old combats and clothes, its not like anyone would have wanted them anyway…

Taggert felt really good in his new equipment.He had kept his old boots but had changed his socks and pretty much every other piece of equipment.He had also decided to leave the MP5 in the hummer and take the M16 A2 that had come with the shipment.

They topped up the hummers tanks and put the remaining diesel in the back, along with the ammo, food, water, weapons and anything else that had come with the shipment that they weren't carrying on their webbing or wearing.

Then the mighty diesel engine of the hummer roared to life and they were on the move again.

Colonel Eric Thorsen's line of vehicles came to a stop in one of the villages along their journey.He decided to forgo the helmet on his uniform this time.He stepped out of the humvee, slipping on his red beret.The sun was low in the sky and they needed a place to stay in the night.The map said that the village was GDI friendly, so they stopped there.

The village leader came towards Thorsen.He slapped a smile on his face.He walked up to the leader and pumped the man's hand earnestly, an American custom that had been imposed on these people.The man spoke broken English.Thorsen asked the man for shelter during the night and the man agreed immediately.This agreement was not a friendly one that was a way for the village to return a favor done to them by the Americans.The agreement was forced because the leader knew that even if he refused the Americans would forcibly move into the village, eat his food, rape the women and then burn the place down when they were done with it.At least if he agreed to it, the food may be taken, but at least the women would be paid for their services and the soldiers would be non-violent.Despite what the map said, the same offer was probably open to the Nod forces that were passing through this area as well, for the same reasons.The villages in this area were in a very interesting predicament.If they cooperated with the GDI and not to Nod, they would be attacked and burned down by Nod forces, if they went the other way, GDI forces would attack and burn down the village.They were forced into the position that made them offer the same services to both sides and hope that the other didn't know, didn't care, or hide any proof that they were doing it.

The sun slowly dipped below the horizon and the desert was bathed in darkness.Since there was nothing in the desert to hold the heat in during the night, it quickly cools and can be as cold as freezing.Thorsen rolled down the sleeves of his tunic and buttoned it up to his throat.

The leader ushered them into the village square where all the people were in the process of building a bonfire.They were just spreading some sort of solvent all over the logs.Then the leader stepped up onto a small podium that was around the bonfire pit.He proclaimed something to all the people, motioning towards the GDI troops as he spoke.All the villagers looked at the men.Then someone threw a match on the solvent.The fire exploded onto the logs, throwing off light and warmth.The soldiers slung their weapons onto their shoulders and huddled around the warmth that the fire provided.

They relaxed around the fire.Thorsen sat back and enjoyed one of his finer Cubans that he had in his gear.Out of the darkness, a single gunshot rattled the otherwise silent air.Thorsen was on his feet, .45 in his hand in a second.Most of the troops were the same way.

The village leader ran to Thorsen and tried to tell him he had nothing to worry about.Three men walked back to the village square.They were carrying a hog that had been shot through the head and one man was slinging a Kar-98 over his shoulder.

Thorsen holstered his .45 and sat back down.The villagers cooked the boar and everyone joined in on the feast.The villagers broke out the wine and the feasted and drank into the night.

That night the men prepared to sleep.They left one man on guard duty, specialist 4th class Jered.While Thorsen and his other men slept deeply, Jered stood on the outskirts of the town scanning the ridge with night vision goggles.

He hugged his tunic and body armor up closer to his chest.His hands were freezing, the tiny gloves in his gear were no up to protecting from the desert chill.His breath came out in plumes of white steam.

From the other side of town, a sniper watched.The figure didn't have any night vision, but there was enough light from the moon to used the iron sights on the Kar-98 he held in his hands.

The sniper fired one round.It hit Jered high in the chest.The sniper quickly worked the bolt and fired again, hitting Jered lower, this time in his torso.

Thorsen shot out of one of the huts with his pistol up and ready.He had slept in combats, foreseeing a situation like this one.

The sniper took a potshot at him.He rolled and came up in a crouch, firing three rounds at where the muzzle flash of the rifle had come from.He ran full out to Jered's crumpled form.He slid his arms under him and tried to move him, but it was too late.He was dead.Thorsen stood up and looked down at the body of one of the men that he had personally trained.

Thorsen's men had spread out and were now in the process of looking for the sniper.Thorsen caught up to them as two medics took Jered's form from his arms.They had found the Kar-98 on the ground with two shells that were lying next to it.There were little splotches of blood on the rifle and the ground around it.

One lieutenant was tracking the blood trail, his M4 up and ready to fire.He followed the trail into the town square, but then he lost it.

By this time, most of the people in the village had heard the gunfire and were all coming outside.Thorsen had commanded seventy-two men, three platoons of crack soldiers.He had trained them himself during the early stages of the war, back in the day, when the war had been a series of black ops actions on both sides.Jered's loss hurt him and all his men deeply, but it couldn't stop them from operating.

His men locked the entire village down and began searching for anyone that was bleeding.The sniper was at a disadvantage here.He was injured, which distinguished him from the other people, and he couldn't escape the village because he would be found by a GDI patrol only hours after he had left the village.

Thorsen set up his base of operations in an old bunker complex built under the village during world war two that the villagers had been using for housing up to this point.His men would find someone sporting a wound and haul him or her down for questioning.

Their first suspect was the man that had shot the hog at the feast with his Kar-98.He wasn't actually injured, but Thorsen hoped that he would be able to shed some light on where the sniper had gotten his German rifle.The man produced his Kar-98 for inspection, which proved him innocent.He also stated the Kar-98s were common in Africa because of all the battles fought between the Allies and Axis during the desert war in World War Two.Thorsen slipped the man an American fifty-dollar bill for his trouble, and then the man was escorted back up to the surface.

The next few people that were brought down all had Kar-98s and were injured, but they promptly removed the dressing on their wounds, showing Thorsen how they had been stepped on by a hog or cut while dressing an animal.All except for one.

This man had refused to remove the dressing on his bicep so that the soldiers could confirm his story about being hit by a rock while playing with his children.As the soldiers persisted, the man screamed that his rights were being compromised as a civilian in a combat zone.Then he demanded that he be released.

Thorsen's men knocked the man to the ground and cut away the dressing.Thorsen looked at the wound long enough to identify that it was a gunshot from a .45 that had caused it.Then he knelt down in front of the man and said, "In this war, there are no civilians, everyone has an allegiance." 

Thorsen stood up and pulled out his .45.He fired three rounds into the man's back.He holstered the handgun and left the body to Lieutenant Newton, their unit's psychological warfare specialist.

Lieutenant Newton used his K-bar knife to remove the man's head from the body, mount it on a stake and leave it in the middle of the village square in front of the entire horrified population.

The village leader stood up in front of the assembled villagers and began a nice, long spiel about how glad that he was that the sniper had been killed.Thorsen shook his head and then waved for his men to leave.

Everyone loaded onto the APC's and hummers.The armored soldiers returned to their tanks and fired them up.The roar of the diesels grew louder as more vehicles fired up and moved out.

Sergeant Scott Powellson ducked down behind the car he was using for cover.Several rounds cut into the frame.He looked up over the car and saw three young Africans firing at him.The men were young, barley twenty, if any.

Reflexively, Powellson fired a stream of lead from his M4 carbine, cutting the group down.Bright red blood splattered on the white walls around them.

More AK-47 fire rained down on him and his group.Powellson ducked back behind the hulk of the vehicle._Did I just do that?_He questioned himself.Immediately he felt an edge of revulsion cut through him.He had just burned down children.

Another dozen holes were punched into the frame of the hulk, snapping him back into reality.The AK fire was coming from the buildings around him.He returned half-dozen single rounds from his M4 at them.

Damn Nod troops were everywhere, sniping at them from buildings, vehicles, anything that would provide the least amount of cover.Their group had been pinned down for about fifteen minutes in the town square.

Thorsen had sent a platoon ahead to scout out any possible signs of where Taggert had been.After GDI had monitored the passing C-130 resupply Taggert, the man had simply vanished there was no evidence of them going anywhere, no tracks even.It was like they had simply vanished.The command decision was made.Thorsen stopped, set up camp and sent out a half-dozen patrols to nearby towns and villages to look for any traces of them.

Taggert had his back to the wall however, there were only a few towns left for him to flee to, then he would be stuck, either to fight it out in the town, or chance traveling the particularly desolate stretch across the desert.They had slugged it out through the entire town, enduring heavy casualties, but it would be worth it in the end.

Powellson perked his hearing up, there was something in the distance, the sound of powerful engines and the squealing of armored treads.Finally, a tank squadron of M-1's had made it.They rolled through the city, hosing establishments with machinegun fire and bringing down buildings with shots from its 40mm main gun.

Powellson burned down the clip on his M4 then dropped to reload.He snapped in another thirty rounder, then came up and fired a few more bursts.

He paused as he saw several terrorists dart across the street about forty meters ahead of him._Oh no you don't!_He thought.

He came out of cover and ran towards the building.He reached the door and then pulled one of his grenades off of his webbing.The then rolled the bomb in and ducked away from the door.

The grenade went off with ground shaking power.Plumes of dust came from the windows and curses floated out from the room.Powellson sent a dozen rounds blindly into the room.

A shot came out of the smoke and cut through his arm.He yelled out in strained pain and threw himself away from the door.He winced and covered the wound, then looked up and saw a Nod machinegun crew setting up an RPD machine gun.He tried to raise his M4 to gun them down before they could set it up completely, but they were too fast.

They spotted him and sent a stream of fire his way.The rounds exploded around him, showering him with pieces of concrete and building materials.Powellson's hearing fazed out into a loud ringing and his vision blurred.He blinked desperately to clear his vision.When he finally got it cleared he saw the crew re-aiming for a more accurate burst.

He tried to move away, but then they loosed a long burst.The fire traced along the wall and past him.The rounds went clean through his vest and cut into the soft tissue behind it, they exploded out his back, splattering the remnants of his chest cavity onto the wall behind him.

His vision filled with red and he collapsed to the ground.His death was only marked with his deep hatred for Nod and all that was associated with it.

Master Sergeant Taggert looked out at the desert.The lowering sun seemed to burn everything in sight to a deep, all encompassing red.He turned and went back to what he was doing.

He was in the process of discarding his M-16 and other clothes, clad in the common dress of the villagers in these parts.He had a sack with him, into which he had placed extra clothes, food, water and his Colt M1911 with three extra magazines.

He stepped down the stairs that brought him to the ground floor.Most of his men were sleeping, so he slipped out quietly into the street.

He didn't feel especially sad about leaving his troops, he would merely join up with the next Nod unit he saw when he had crossed the barren void of desert, but frankly, with GDI troops the next town over, worrying about his future in Nod was the least of his concern at this time.

He had gone maybe a half a kilometer through the city before it happened.He was crossing the town square when he heard the click of a hammer of a pistol being pulled back.

He stopped walking and held his hands outward, away from his body.

"I've waited for this a very long time."The voice announced from behind him.

Taggert turned and looked at the person behind him.The man held a Colt M1911 pistol in his right hand.He wore desert fatigues and a red beret along with a flak jacket.

"Colonel Thorsen, My conqueror, I presume."Said Taggert almost insolently.

"That is correct, and you are Master Sergeant Flynn Taggert, 3rd Nod Infantry division.You look different from the picture in your file."

"Yes, it was probably taken long ago, before the war changed me.I assume that you will be bringing me in moments from now?"

"No," Thorsen said."I won't"

The blood drained from Taggert's face, "But surely, I am worth more alive than dead, my knowledge alone would be worth…"

"Absolutely nothing." Finished Thorsen."In case you haven't noticed, the war is almost over, Nod is loosing more and more ground every day, no matter what your people do now, they are doomed to loose the war, and that makes you, _obsolete._"

The pistol in Thorsen's hand spoke once.The round made a circular hole in the front of Taggert's forehead, with a silver dollar size exit hole in the back of his skull.Taggert's whole body stiffened up, and then he fell to the cold pavement.

Thorsen let the pistol drop to his side, and then he turned away from the corpse and walked out of the square, back to the war.

Back to where he belonged… 


End file.
